combustibil

Forms

combustibil m (plural combustibili)^[1] Adjective: combustibil m or n (feminine singular combustibilă, masculine plural combustibili, feminine and neuter plural combustibile).^[1] The first record, in J. Cihac (1837), has the French form combustible.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French combustible (“combustible; fuel”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} DELR explains the French word as formed on combustion with the suffix replaced;^[2][1] Wiktionary takes it from Middle French, from combust, the past participle of comburir, and -ible.^[2][1] Behind it lies Latin combūrō (“to burn up”), formed con- and ūrō (“to burn”), with the ⟨b⟩ taken from ambūrō (“to burn around”).^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1837;^[2] DELR's quotation, from J. Cihac, still has the French form combustible.^[2][4] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 gives both the adjective, “having the property of burning, of combining with oxygen”, and the noun, anything that feeds a fire.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Romanian took over a whole family of these French terms in the same years: combustie “combustion”, combustibilitate and incombustibil appear in Negulici's dictionary of 1848, comburant in 1852, and necombustibil, formed in Romanian on the model of French incombustible, in 1870.^[2]

As a noun the word came to mean the fuel used for heating and as a source of energy in industry.^[3][8] Technical phrases followed: combustibil convențional, a standard fuel of 7,000 kcal/kg used to compare real fuels, and combustibil nuclear, fissile material burned in reactors.^[3][9] DELR dates biocombustibil “biofuel” to 1964.^[2]

Timeline

• 1837 – first record, in the French form combustible.^[2][4]
• 1848 – the adjective and the noun in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms, with combustibilitate and incombustibil.^[7][2]
• 1870 – necombustibil in Costinescu's dictionary.^[2]
• 1949 – the noun in Ioanovici's Tehnologia mecanică, MDA2's first record.^[9]
• 1964 – biocombustibil “biofuel”.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of materials: combustible, able to burn: Lemnul uscat este un material combustibil.^[3][9]

Noun

1. A fuel: a substance, usually organic, that burns giving off heat and is used as a source of energy in industry and in the home;^[3][9][1] combustibil nuclear “nuclear fuel”.^[3][9][1]

Word family

• combustibilitate
• incombustibil
• necombustibil
• biocombustibil

Related words

• combustie
• comburant
• French combustible

Usage notes

Scriban and CADE treat the noun as neuter, with the plural combustibile;^{[10][11][3][9]} DEX and MDA2 make it masculine, combustibili, and MDA2 also allows the neuter plural.^{[10][11][3][9]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. combustie
3. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 209
4. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. combustíbil
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. combustibil
6. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
7. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. combustibbil
8. ^ Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. combustibil
9. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 468
10. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 320
11. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. combustibil